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Sunday, 16 April 2017

Monday, April 17, 2017 - Has Jesus risen in your heart? How will you show this today?

The scene which forms the
text for today is found only in Matthew’s Gospel. Immediately after the women
leave the empty tomb, to obey the command of the angel to tell Jesus’ disciples
about his resurrection, Jesus himself meets them and thus, they are the first
to see the risen Christ. Through this appearance of the risen Christ, Matthew
stresses a point he made earlier through the Emmanuel prophecy (1:23) in the
Mission Discourse (10:40) and in other parts of his Gospel, that Jesus would
accompany his disciples on Mission. His presence with them would be a constant
presence. The risen Christ, who is simply Jesus, thus stressing the continuity
with the crucified Jesus, repeats the command of the angel. However, in Jesus’
command, the disciples become “brothers,” indicating that they now belong to
the family of Jesus and that all the past has been forgiven. Thus, the women,
besides being communicators of the good news of the resurrection, are also
commanded to communicate reconciliation. Though Jesus appears as he would have
in his life time, he is, nevertheless, the risen Lord as is evident in the
response of the women who take hold of his feet and worship him. The risen
Jesus is real but he is also new.

The second part of the text
(28:11-15) narrates the bribing of the guards and interrupts the flow of the
story. However, it also completes the story begun in 27:62-66 in which the
chief priests and Pharisees ask Pilate to make the tomb secure and Pilate
responds to their request by asking them to place their own guards, which they
do. Though the guards had seen the same events as the women, they do not come
to faith. They narrate to the chief priests “everything that had happened.” The
height of the irony is that the chief priests and elders become the
perpetrators of the very story that they accused the disciples of Jesus of
possibly fabricating. The soldiers are instructed to fall in line with the
story fabricated by the chief priests and elders and money is used as the lure.

The presence of Jesus is an
eternal presence. It is a presence that is always there even when we try to
deny it like the Pharisees did or even when we cannot feel is as tangibly as we
would like. This is not only because of the promise of Jesus to his disciples
and us, but also because of the fact that whenever love is made present Jesus
is, whenever concern for another is shown, Jesus is and whenever we reach out
in love and forgiveness, optimism and hope, Jesus is and continues to be.

About Me

There are four maxims I try to live by. The first is to ALWAYS have CHOICES about everything. The more choices I have, the less the chances of my being disappointed.
The Second is that I try to see my REWARD in the doing of the action itself. I will expect nothing from anyone in return and even expect the very ones I have helped to be ungrateful. It does not matter. I do not mind.
The third is that every stage in my life I try to KNOW where my authority ends. This saves a lot of bother. I am not the General Manager of the Universe. I do what I have to do and leave the rest to God.
The fourth is a readiness to face the consequences of my action. When I make a gaffe I am willing to rectify it and apologize. However, if it cannot be rectified I am ready to face the penalty.